Grave Creek Mound Archaeology Complex in Moundsville will celebrate Black History
Month on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2006 from 2 - 4 p.m., with a reception,
exhibition opening for African-American Influences, a History Alive presentation
and a jazz concert. The program, presented in conjunction with West Virginia
Northern Community College, is free and open to the public.

The African-American Influences exhibit will include selections from the collection
of the West Virginia State Museum and six compressed charcoal or conte crayon
drawings by Wheeling artist Patricia Jacobson. Jacobson’s drawings were
made from photographs in “Minds Stayed on Freedom, The Civil Rights Struggle
in the Rural South,” an oral history by the youth of the Rural Organizing
and Cultural Center of Holmes County, Miss. The exhibition will remain on display
through Feb. 28.

Jacobson has taught classes in drawing and painting at the Stifel Fine Art
Center and ceramics and drawing in the continuing education program at West
Virginia Northern Community College. Her work has been included in many juried
exhibitions, and she won a $2,000 Award of Excellence in the West Virginia Juried
Exhibition 2005 at the Cultural Center in Charleston.

Joseph Bundy of Bluefield will bring Booker T. Washington to life with his
History Alive presentation. Bundy is a graduate of Marshall University with
a degree in theater. In addition to being a History Alive scholar, he is the
director of the Afro-Appalachian Performance Company and a member of the West
Virginia Storytelling Guild.

Rounding out the day’s activities will be a jazz concert by students
in the jazz studies program at West Virginia University (WVU) under the direction
of Curtis Johnson, associate professor of saxophone and member of the jazz/applied
faculty. Johnson received his bachelor of music degree from West Liberty State
College and his master’s from WVU. He has extensive performance experience
with such famed artists as Frankie Valli, Wynton Marsalis, Ray Charles and Maynard
Ferguson.

For more information about the Black History Month celebration at Grave Creek
Mound Archaeology Complex, contact Susan Yoho, site manager for the facility,
at (304) 843-4128.

Operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Grave Creek
Mound Archaeology Complex features one of the largest and most famous burial
mounds built by the prehistoric Adena people. A massive undertaking, construction
of the mound took place in successive stages from about 250-150 B.C., and required
the movement of more than 60,000 tons of earth. Exhibits and displays in the
complex’s museum interpret what is known about the lives of these prehistoric
people and the construction of the mound. The Museum is located at 801 Jefferson
Ave., in Moundsville. Operating hours are Monday - Saturday from 10 a.m. - 4:30
p.m., and Sunday from 1 - 5 p.m.

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia
Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past,
present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and
history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Visit the Division’s
website at www.wvculture.org for more information about programs of the Division.
The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
Employer.